A continuum of life histories in deep-sea demersal fishes

It is generally perceived that all deep-sea fishes have great longevity, slow growth, and low reproductive output in comparison to shelf dwelling species. However, such a dichotomy is too simplistic because some fishes living on continental slopes are relatively fecund and fast growing, important considerations in respect to the management of expanding deep-sea fisheries. We tested two hypotheses that might explain variation in life history attributes of commercially exploited demersal fishes: (1) phylogeny best explains the differences because deep-sea species are often in different families from shelf dwelling ones and, alternatively, (2) environmental factors affecting individual life history attributes that change with depth account for the observed variation. Our analysis was based on 40 species from 9 orders, including all major commercially exploited deep-sea fishes and several phylogenetically related shelf species. Depth of occurrence correlated significantly with age at 50% maturity increasing linearly with depth (r2=0.46), while the von Bertalanffy growth coefficient, maximum fecundity and potential rate of population increase declined significantly and exponentially with depth (r2=0.41, 0.25 and 0.53, respectively). These trends were still significant when phylogenetically independent contrasts were applied. The trends were also consistent with similar slopes amongst members of the order Gadiformes and the order Scorpaeniformes. Reduced temperatures, predation pressure, food availability, or metabolic rates may all contribute to such changes with depth. Regardless of the mechanisms, by analyzing a suite of fishes from the shelves to the slope the present analysis has shown that rather than a simple dichotomy between deep-sea fishes and shelf fishes there is a continuum of life history attributes in fishes which correlate strongly with depth of occurrence.

► Meta-analysis of life history attributes of demersal deep-sea fishes.
► Age at maturity increases with depth.
► Growth rate, potential rate of population increase and fecundity decline with depth.
► Depth explained more variation in parameters within each of 2 orders of fishes.
► Environmental variation across depth drives a continuum of life history variation.